Middlesbrough have had to essentially rebuild their side for this campaign, but with the recruitment model at the club as it is, instant success was never going to be achieved.
That said, and despite some early season struggles, Michael Carrick is already managing to get a more cohesive tune from this group than most would have imagined, perfectly typified by the valarous effort in their 1-0 win against table-topping Leicester City.
Middlesbrough sit in 10th position in the Championship, just 2 points from the play-off places. Remarkable considering they sat rock bottom after 7 games.
A new direction
A quick glance at the first team and the bench from Saturday’s win would show that there were 11 faces who were not at the club last season. That is a huge turnaround for any club, but especially a club that was at the top end, contesting the key positions. Not only that, but players who wore the red of Middlesbrough last season went on to make permanent transfers that fetched in the region of £70 million.
It would be impossible to replace that kind of talent, nor did Boro want to instantly replace them, because that would mean the majority would be loan deals, something Michael Carrick wanted to move away from. The reason for the new direction and a move away from too many loan deals was simple, to avoid the exact situation they faced this summer.
When teams lose a raft of on loan players, it means that the team is decimated and the whole balance of the squad has to be instantly re-addressed. As most fans will be tired of being reminded, Middlesbrough lost 5 first team players from the previous campaign in Zack Steffen, Ryan Giles, Chuba Akpom, Aaaron Ramsey and Cameron Archer. That can’t be a regular occurrence and so the recruitment team set about building the foundations for a more seamless transition.
Setting the foundations
In came the likes of Morgan Rogers, Lukas Engel, Alex Gilbert, Sami Silvera, Alex Bangura, Rav van den Berg and Emannuel Latte Lath. Of all of those players, only Morgan Rogers had experienced Championship football, and even that was not extensive. But this was about progression, setting foundations and avoiding the large number of ins and outs after each campaign.
Boro did bring in goalkeeper Seny Dieng who is an experienced stopper and has been a revelation so far, but otherwise, the signings have been players who have been identified by the club as assets for the future. The expectations for the new crop of 18-24-year-old’s could surely not have been too lofty given their relative experience. In spite of that, Carrick has somehow got this group-a mixture of professionals with Championship know-how and an exciting new breed making their own contribution-flying.
Carrick fits Boro framework perfectly
The squad already has 12 different goal scorers this season, and the side play in exactly the same way, with the same ethos. That is so difficult to achieve with completely different personnel.
After watching the turgid display against a desperately poor Sheffield Wednesday outfit, I would defy anyone to say they could have predicted the win against Leicester City.
This season should have been about consolidating and the start of a new vision for the club in terms of how they will progress and move forward. You have to start somewhere, and the club had to bring in a batch of new young players, most of which were expected to benefit the club in years to come. That will still be the case, but Boro’s head coach is once again showing why he is fits so perfectly into the club’s framework. He loves to develop young players, and you would be hard pressed to find another coach so good at nurturing a burgeoning crop of footballers.
Credit must be attributed to the recruitment at the club, something that has been a problem in the past, but the real jewell in the Teesside crown has to be the effect of Michael Carrick.